God's Will, Good Works Pt. 1 | Pastor Jake Sweetman

Today in Nashville, for those of you who don't know, we have a location of our church in Nashville, and today they're having their first service in their brand new building. How exciting is that? must be like a record time renovation, friends. He was like, I'm going to be in there for the first Sunday of the year. I'm like, Steve, there's no way you're going to do that. He's like, I'm going to do it. Sure enough, they're doing it. And we'll have some kind of recap video for you here soon to show you the before and after, the job they did with the space.

It's so beautiful. And I'm very excited for that. Well, today is our annual Dream Service Sunday, where we are going to write down our dreams, our desires, our goals, maybe even some habits that you want to form this year, and we're going to commit those in prayer to the Lord. And the point of that is a couple of things. Number one, it's to help us see all of these things as worship to God, to see our dreams and our goals for the year as worship to God. As a means of worshiping the Lord with the entirety of our lives.

And then number two, to come to God in prayer and to humble ourselves and say, God, I need your help. I need you to help me to live for your glory. And so when we commit our dreams to God, that's what we're doing. We say, these are for you, and I need your help to live into the fullness of your plans for my life. And so we'll do that at the end of the service.

To help us with that practice today, I want to explore a very commonly asked question by Christians everywhere. And it's the question of, what is God's will for my life? Anybody ever wondered that? Like, what is God, what do you want me to do? And in fact, I want to preach a few messages this month, tackling that question, because I still find a lot of Christians wrestle a lot with the notion of purpose and what their lives are meant to consist of. Basically, what is God's will for them?

And so we'll fill these out today and pray over them. But I would say, like, hang on to this and bring it to church over the next few weeks as we continue to explore that question of God's will for our lives. Because maybe you want to continue to add things to it as you devote yourself to the life that God wants you to live.

Let's look at our text in Ephesians chapter 5. We did a series last fall through the book of Ephesians, but this was a portion of the book that we didn't get to really cover. Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 15, the Apostle Paul says this, Be very careful then. Or maybe your Bible says, Be very careful therefore.

Now, whenever you see language like that, in your Bibles, that should make you pause and reflect on what came before this text. Because the Apostle Paul is obviously referencing something that he's already talked about, and now he's making a point on the basis of what he's talked about. So be very careful then. Now, the thing that he's been talking about is really the identity of the church. How the church is the temple of God, the unification of Jew and Gentile, and God's temple where the presence of God dwells.

And so Paul says, Paul has been talking to the Ephesians about how they are that temple, and how God has called them to live holy lives, as lives that are set apart to God. So because of that, because that's your identity, I want you to embrace that identity, and be very careful how you live. Now, maybe you remember from our series in Ephesians, that word live is the Greek word. I'm just kidding. That was a joke. I didn't actually expect you to remember it. That was funny. That was funny, okay?

It's the Greek word peripateo. Everyone say peripateo. Yeah, you remember peripateo, right? We're peripateo -ing around. Okay, and that word is literally to walk. So be very careful then how you walk. And what that word walk is about is your daily life. So be very careful how you approach your everyday life. Not as unwise, but as wise. Those are your two options for how you can live. You can live with foolishness, or you can live with wisdom.

Making the most, this is an interesting phrase, making the most of every opportunity, maybe your Bible says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. That's kind of a, like, we wouldn't talk that way. That's not a phrase that I've heard any of my friends use recently. You know, like, Pastor Jake, you need to make use of your time because the days are evil, okay? We don't talk that way. But that's significant for the book of Ephesians.

One of the major themes in Ephesians, if you remember, is the whole idea of spiritual warfare, right? And there's a spiritual war that is going on, and in the midst of that, in the midst of that spiritual war, the church is called to proclaim the victory of Christ and to enact the victory of Christ. And how we do that is what we'll talk about over the course of the next few weeks. And we need to do that because we're living in the midst of evil days. Therefore, don't be foolish. There's that idea again. Live as wise people, not foolish people. But understand, turn to your neighbor. I think you should tell this to them as an encouragement today. Say, neighbor. Oh, that was pathetic. Okay, let's try that one more time. It could be a little bit more vocal. Say, neighbor. Neighbor. Understand what the Lord's will is. Yeah, just do that, okay? Church dismissed. All done. Just everyone go about. Just figure it out, okay? Understand what the Lord's will is. Because the stakes are high. And the opposition is real. So the picture here is of a church who are committed to their identity as the temple of God's presence and their call to live holy, that is, lives that are set apart to God. And the first thing that I want you to notice here in this text is that it's addressing our daily lives, okay? So there's a zoom in factor going on here where we're like, we're looking at your daily. That's what Peri Pateo is about. That's what like making the most of your time is about. Paul is concerned with your Tuesday afternoon. Not because he's nosy, but because your daily life apparently has cosmic significance. Like really large significance. That's what we see in the text, right? There's this twofold sense of zooming in on our everyday lives, but also zooming in on our daily lives. So zooming out and connecting our daily lives to this whole idea of overcoming evil and fulfilling the will of God. And so in Christianity, the micro and the macro go together. And that's what the incarnation of Christ shows us, right? God becomes a man. The transcendent one becomes imminent. And those two are united in him. And by uniting the transcendent and the imminent, Jesus Christ restores what it means for you and I to be human. By joining us, back into right relationship with God and by redeeming us back into the purpose of God for our lives. And so when you chose to follow Jesus, you got reconnected to the metanarrative of history. Your life got reconnected back to the big story that God is telling. Your life is a part of telling that much bigger story. That ought to help you with your sorrow, sad, depression self a bit, right? Like you're connected to a big story. Like your life matters. It matters a whole lot. And so you might say, that our understanding of and our approach to our daily lives is significant. It's of cosmic significance. What our days and weeks and years amount to matters. What you write down on your dream card today and submit to God in prayer matters. Your presence, your effort, your sowing, your reaping, your watering, your harvesting, it all matters. Giving your attention to those who are around you matters. Answering your emails matters. Texting back that person by the end of the day. That's an idea. It matters. Your work. I was talking to Gen Z there. Your work matters. I'm in a mood today in this first Sunday of the year. I'm so sorry. My professor at seminary told me the story of this big race that his community run every single year. And it's such a large race that it has to be run as like a group. So like one person in the group runs for six miles and then the rest of the group, they drive in the car and they meet the person at the six mile marker and then they swap out. Another person. Another person runs and it's this really big long race. And because of that, there's all these port -a -potties that are along the route of the race. And he was telling the story about how he was driving in the car and they got to one of the port -a -potty parts and he sees the guy whose job it is to like clean out the port -a -potties. He's the port -a -potty sucker, okay? Like he puts the hose in the port -a -potty and he does it. I'm sorry if that grosses you out. That's a real job that people have, okay? And so he walks up to the guy who's sucking the port -a -potty and he's like, hey man, I just want to thank you for what you're doing. This race would not be possible. It would not be possible without you. And this is what the guy's response was. He says, thanks. I do this as worship unto the Lord.

Port -a -potty sucking. Some of you are graphic designers and you're like, you still have a trouble with your attitude about pushing pictures around on your computer. I guess this guy understood the passage. To redeem your time, to make the most of your time by understanding what the will of the Lord is. So like my question is, how do we become like that guy? How do we approach our lives, our everyday existence with that much purpose? Because that's a guy who is fully alive and I want to be like that. And in order to do that, we've got to answer a really important question that we're left with when we get to the end of this passage. Like hopefully you were asking this question when we read that last verse. Like here's the question we should all be asking. What is the will of the Lord? Like I'm just instructed to understand it. So what is the will of the Lord? And specifically, what is God's will regarding our daily lives? We know it has something to do with overcoming the presence of evil in the world, but what exactly does that look like? Well, lucky for us, that's something that the Apostle Paul talks a lot about throughout the letter to the Ephesians. And he says a lot of specific things about particular scenarios in life that are in regard to God's will. But he also sums it up for us in general. This is God's will for your life. You can see it in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10. And this is really helpful for us. For we are God's handiwork. That word handiwork is the Greek word poema. It's where we get our word poem. So we, not you. I know you're awesome. But not you, not me. Who is it? That's the church. The church is God's poem, God's masterpiece, God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do literally for the purpose of good works, which God has done for us. God prepared in advance for us to literally peripeteo, for us to walk in. So literally what that says is that you and I are created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of doing good works in our daily lives. So what's the will of the Lord? Well, we could say it this way, that God's will is good works. In fact, we could just make that the theme of the next few weeks. God's will, good works. There's a lot of things we could say to describe God's plan for our lives and a lot of things would be correct. But if we wanted to boil it down to one small phrase, we would do well to use this phrase that the Apostle Paul uses a lot, that you and I were created to do good works. And so the question then becomes, okay, well, what are those good works? And that's the question that we'll answer this month. We'll define in three ways what those good works consist of so that you and I are dreaming as and living as children of God, as opposed to just... products of the world. And here's what I think you're going to find even today is that God's will for your life is way more liberating than you probably realize. God's will is not fundamentally limiting. God's will is fundamentally liberating. Just ask Adam and Eve. You can eat of any tree, just not that one. Like, that's a lot of liberty. And liberty is typically what follows as a result of clear direction for your life, by the way. Like, you walk in liberty as you practice restraint. let that one settle in. You walk in liberty as you practice restraint. That's something our world needs to learn. And so that's what the call to good works entails, is like restraining ourselves to God's direction. And when we do that, we actually find that the narrow path is pretty bountiful. And so before we can define what those good works are, let's talk about a couple of things that they're not. Number one, good works does not equal earning something from God. When you come across good works in your New Testament, and you will a lot, do not think of doing things that earn God's approval, or earn God's love, or earn your salvation. Good works are not earning something from God. Good works, we're going to find, are actually partnering with God. Number two, good works do not equal random acts of kindness.

You can't just walk grandma across the street and think you're fulfilling the will of God for your life. Now, helping grandma is great. I encourage helping all the grandmas. God bless all the grandmas in the house today. But helping grandma across the street is not the sum total point of your life. You can't just walk grandma across the street and think you're fulfilling the will of God for your life. Random acts of kindness are what you're left with when you become a secular humanist. When you're no longer connected to that larger story to inform the meaning of your life, you swap out a biblical understanding of life with empty platitudes. It's like you drive down the street, you see the billboard. Kindness, pass it on. Why? Why? If Christianity isn't true, if God isn't real, why? Right? But when you're disconnected from the metanarrative, then you still have that instinct to do the right thing, but you don't have a good reason to do the right thing. So, when you're disconnected to do it. But Christians are connected to a grander story, a much grander story than one that boils down our good behavior down to random acts of kindness. And that story is something that we talk a lot about during our time in the book of Ephesians. There's a variety of ways that we could describe that story for the sake of today's message. Let's describe it by saying this. This is the metanarrative of your life, that Jesus is on a mission to bring salvation to every tribe and tongue, every nation and neighborhood. That's the one way that you can understand the story that your life is connected to, that Jesus is on a mission to bring salvation, redemption, rescue, healing, deliverance to every tribe and tongue, every nation and neighborhood. Well, that mission is the parting words of Jesus at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, isn't it? Isn't that what he tells his disciples before he ascends back into heaven and takes his seat at the right hand of the Father? Look at Matthew chapter 28, beginning in verse 18. It says, Jesus came to them and he said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. I'm fully in charge. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. One preacher once said that the word go is two -thirds of God's name. Some of you could do well to smile more. was kind of funny. I'll be back to normal next week, I promise. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the name of God, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And surely, listen to this. Surely, I, Jesus, I am with you always to the very end of the age. I'm present with you because I'm in on that mission. That's why he's with us to the end of the age. Not just because he just likes hanging out with you, but because he's got a mission and he's partnering with us to bring that mission to fulfillment. That's what he's focused on. And so that mission should inform what we think of when we think of good works. Like if the Great Commission and good works are both central to the mission, then we're going to be able to do it. If they're both central to the will of God, then they must have something to do with one another. And basically what Jesus is putting words to here is the original mission found at the beginning of the Bible, where Adam and Eve are tasked with the good work of cultivating the Garden of Eden, the original temple where God dwelt with man, cultivating that garden so that that garden reality, the place of God's presence, God's blessing, would fill the entirety of the earth. It was a mission for them to fill the world with communities of righteousness and justice. Communities of people who live in right relationship with God and right relationship with one another. We might call that the church. That's what the New Testament calls it. And so the Great Commission in Matthew 28 is not something entirely new. It's the failed mission of Adam taken up successfully by Jesus and then shared with his disciples, the church. That's why Scripture calls Jesus the last Adam and the church the new temple of God. We are the garden where God dwells. And growing that garden temple is what we are commissioned to do. It's the same good work that Adam and Eve were called to do at the very beginning. Okay? So we're making a little bit of progress in understanding what good works are, but we need a little bit more clarity so that we can apply this to our lives and our dreams today. Let's look at another text of Paul's. Look at Colossians chapter 1. Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians around the same time as Ephesians, and so it has a lot of the same themes that Ephesians has. Colossians 1, in verse 9, Paul says this, Paul, what are you praying for these people for? Well, we continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives. We're seeing some similar themes here. So that you may peripeteo, a life worthy of the Lord. That's a significant phrase, worthy of the Lord. And please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work. Growing in the knowledge of God. So we've got all the same ideas here, primarily that we would know that God's will is for our daily lives to consist of good works. Okay? But there's two additional details here that are helpful. First, these good works are associated with the activity of bearing fruit. Right? Bearing fruit. You see that in your Bible? Yeah? Bearing fruit in every good work. That's significant because bearing fruit takes us back to the Garden of Eden. Gardening, bearing fruit in the Jewish mind, pretty much always connects back to God's original plan to fill the world with Eden through partnership with Adam and Eve. And so Paul has that original mission in mind here, bearing fruit, growing the garden, also known as, in the words of Jesus, making disciples. Right? And that's helpful because it confirms the picture of what we should be thinking of when we envision a life of good works. We should be thinking of gardening. We should be thinking of making disciples. That's how we partner with Jesus in redeeming the nations and the neighborhoods, by influencing people to become disciples of Jesus Christ one life at a time. We become gardeners who bear the fruit of helping people to follow Jesus. I thought that was the preacher's job. Nope. It's not just me who was created in Christ Jesus for good works. It's all of our job. We become gardeners who bear the fruit of helping people to follow Jesus. How do we do that? Well, let's look at the next detail that's there in that text. Second, these good works... have to do with a life, what does Paul say, that is worthy of the Lord. Literally, a life that is worthy of Jesus. And what that means is that our lives align with the standard of Christ. That we follow the pattern that Jesus has established. What's the pattern of Jesus? It's a pattern of death and resurrection. It's a pattern of servanthood for the sake of salvation. And this is good because it gives us some definition to our good works beyond just helping Grandma across the street. Our good works are aimed at bearing fruit. And the way that that happens is by you and I following the pattern that Jesus has set for us. So what does that look like? Well, in the original picture of Eden, the good work involved actual cultivation of the earth, actual gardening, actual seed and harvest. But even there in the beginning, it is symbolic of the ultimate task of humanity, to bear the image of God and to cultivate communities of righteousness and justice, of making disciples so that people live in right relationship with God. And then up in the New Testament, we reach what the sign in Eden was signifying all along. The picture of bearing fruit for God's kingdom that was anticipated in the garden comes into clear view through the mission of Jesus to reach nations and neighborhoods by you and I taking a particular kind of lifestyle, lifestyle, by you and I viewing our lives through a particular kind of lens. Jesus is going to help us with that. Look at John chapter 12, beginning in verse 20. This is a phenomenal story, one of my favorites in the New Testament. It says, now there were some Greeks, that's significant, some non -Jews, some Gentiles. There were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival that is Passover. So there's some God -fearing, non -Jewish, Gentile people there. And they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request, sir, they said, we would like to see Jesus. And Philip went to Andrew, these are disciples of Jesus. And Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. And here was Jesus' reply to this revelation, this fact that these Greeks had come to meet him. Jesus replied, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Well, that sounds exciting. What are you talking about, Jesus? Verse 24, very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. If it dies, it produces many seeds. The garden grows. There's a great harvest. Anyone who loves their life will lose it. Anybody who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. That is, if you would invert your values and stop living for yourself and start living for the Lord, then you'll actually gain what you thought you lost. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, my servant also will be. My father will honor the one who serves me. So here in John chapter 12, we've reached a point in the story of Jesus' life where we're right before when he goes to the cross. And one of the final things that happens to Jesus is some Greeks come looking for him. And they're seeking an audience with Jesus. They've heard of his wisdom. They've heard of his power. And they want to meet Jesus. And their request to meet him is of incredible significance. And we are alerted to that significance by the fact that it triggers Jesus to announce that his hour of glory, that is his death and his resurrection, has arrived. Now up until now in John's gospel, the hour of Jesus' glory has only been spoken of by the people of Israel. And that's why we're here today. We're here to speak to you about the hour of glory that has come. And you're not going to hear about that. You're going to hear about that when we talk about the hour of glory that has come. So what is it about these Greeks coming to Jesus that is so significant that causes Jesus to announce the arrival of his glorious hour? Well, it's because these Greeks coming to him, they symbolize exactly what the cross of Christ was going to accomplish. That all the nations could now be saved. That they could come to God. Look at Jesus' own commentary of this event. A little further down in John 12 verse 32, Jesus says this, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. And he said this, verse 33, to show the kind of death he was going to die. So Jesus says here, the cross is how I'm going to draw the nations to myself. And the Greeks in this story, they symbolize those nations. These non -Jewish people, they symbolize something greater than themselves, the ends of the earth. They are representative of the fullest extent of fulfillment of the mission of Jesus. And here they are. They've come to Jesus. And yet the tension in the story is that rather than going to the Greeks, what does Jesus do? He starts talking about gardening. He starts talking about his cross with the analogy of sowing his life as a seed into the earth, of dying for the sake of bringing life. Jesus starts talking about the ultimate good work that was planned for him from before the beginning of time. What's he doing? He's taking up the mission of Eden and giving it full expression with his own life, sown as a sacrificial seed into the world. You see, in Eden, the mission was for Adam and Eve to sow seed. But that was actually symbolic of the kind of life that they were meant to live, a life of loving, loyal service to God, service to others, rather than service of themselves. You see, Adam wasn't just meant to sow seed. He was meant to be seed. And where Adam failed, Christ has succeeded in the ultimate mission, not just of someone who sows seed, but somebody who is seed, to be a servant for the sake of the world. And he's going to be a servant for the sake of the world. Redeeming the world with the love and the life of God. Now this is deeply instructive for us when it comes to our dreams. Because in some sense here in this text, Jesus is presented with his dream come true. That's what these Greeks represent. They represent his mission to the ends of the earth being fulfilled. And here they are, before Jesus can even go to the cross, the mission fulfilled comes to him. They've come to behold Jesus, to see if all the rumors of his greatness are true. And they've come to behold Jesus, to see if all the rumors of his greatness are true. And Jesus has the opportunity to wow them if he wants. He can receive their adoration if he likes. This is similar to the temptation that Jesus faced in the wilderness when Satan came and said, bow before me and I'll give you all the kingdoms in the world. Skip the cross. But Jesus doesn't go to them. As far as we can tell from the text, he doesn't even answer the request of the Greeks. He doesn't give them an audience. Not because he doesn't love them, but because he loves them. Not because he doesn't love them, but because he loves them. Not because he doesn't have the right to be proclaimed Lord by them. But because if he goes to them without first going to the cross, they'll never know the fullest extent of the kind of Lord that he actually is. Jesus knows he cannot shortcut the dream and skip the way, the only path, the purpose of being a seed. Not receiving glory for himself, not serving self, but serving God, serving the will of God, the purpose of God, the plan of God by serving others. So Jesus doesn't go to the ends of the earth who have come to him. Where does Jesus go? He goes to the dirt. Because he knows that he can't go to the ends of the earth without first going to die. He refuses to take glory for himself because he knows that true glory is only found in sowing his life as a seed. Even when faced with the fullest expression of his mission accomplished, Jesus knew that the only real way there was to serve. And so he says to you and I in John chapter 12, whoever serves me must follow me and where I am, my servant will be also. Jesus, where are you? He's in the dirt. In other words, you can't skip being a seed. The only true way to fruitfulness to be a seed. The only kind of life that fulfills the mission of God to fill the world with his goodness and glory is life as a seed. And most days you will be faced with a similar temptation to Jesus.

it about you, forget about others. Put you first, others last. Many days you will be faced with that same temptation and you need to know, just like Jesus knew, that that is a bankrupt path. The only path to the purpose of God is the path of a seed. Now friends, that does not mean that you will die on a cross for the sins of the world. Only Jesus, God incarnate, could have achieved that. But what it does mean is that you will die on a cross for the sins of the world. That you also are meant to serve, to live life as a seed. As long as a seed refuses to be sown, it will only ever remain a single seed. It is good for nothing except to be eaten up by the world. But once that seed is sown, it can fulfill its purpose of producing many more seeds. What we might call making disciples, growing the garden. And so we come to our first understanding of what is meant by a life of good works. And it means more than one thing. It at least means this today, that good works is to sow your life as a seed so others can know Jesus. What is meant by your life being characterized by good works? It means that every day you would be willing to sow your life as a seed, to live as a servant so that other people can know Jesus. To put your own priorities aside, your own preferences down, and go, how can I live in such a way so that my immediate family around me knows Jesus better? How can I live in such a way so that my co -workers who don't know God have the opportunity to know God through me? How can I embrace a lifestyle that leads to other people even desiring, wanting to know Jesus? And friends, this is an issue of first importance in your life. In fact, Paul says that until you embrace a lifestyle of good works that bear fruit, you won't fully know God. He connects those two ideas. You see, God does not intend for you to fully know Him through prayer alone, through silence and solitude alone, through Sabbath alone, through singing about Him alone. God intends that you would only fully know Him by partnering with Him in His mission to reach the nations and the neighborhoods, to live in such a way as a seed so that people have the opportunity to know Jesus. Now, the tension here at this point of the message is that if you've been following Jesus for ten minutes, my point today is painfully obvious. Why did I take thirty minutes to get there? And if it is painfully obvious to you, that's a good thing, because it means that you at least intellectually understand the impact of the gospel upon your life, that it's meant to have on your life. the point that I want to leave you with today is how broadly this truth should be applied to your everyday existence, especially when it comes to answering the question, what is God's will for my life? Because the conclusion of living life as a seed, of being a servant, is wildly liberating. It means that in some very real sense, God's will for your life is, what do you want to do?

Let me ask it a different way. How do you want to serve? Look at Colossians 3 .17. I love this verse. And, let's say this word together, and, let's try it again, and, yeah, whatever you do. Borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, God's will is whatever. Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord. Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. See, it's not so much what you choose to do, but who you represent while you do it. That's what it means to do it in his name. It's not so much what you choose to pursue, but whether or not your pursuits can be genuinely counted as worship. That's what it means to do it as giving thanks to God.

And as you do that, you'll be living life as a seed, as a servant. So here's two points today to take away for you. Number one, pick a church.

The church is the current fulfillment of Eden in the world, which means that expanding Eden is a group activity. It's a communal activity, accomplished by local bodies of Christ throughout the world. So commit to a church and be absolutely devoted to worshiping together, building friendships with each other, serving one another, being discipled by others, growing in your maturity so that you have the ability to disciple others. Start paying attention to your spiritual gifts and seek to grow in those spiritual gifts as a means of edifying, building up the body of Christ. All of that is seed stuff. Now to really get into that lifestyle, that means that you genuinely have to belong to a church on the basis of shared beliefs and shared mission. Not just hanging on the outskirts, kind of pseudo belonging, but genuine belonging. The way that we do that here at Cathedral is through essentials. We call people to genuine commitment to their local church. The bar is high because we find that that produces better disciples of Jesus. I'll just say a note for you engaged or married couples, go in on this together. Husbands, don't let your wives be more committed to the church than you are. You set the pace. You set the standard. You set the bar for what it looks like to your family to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ in 2025. Be equally committed. Pick a church. Point number two, pick a craft. God's will is whatever. Whether it's custom -made furniture or customer service, entrepreneurship or engineering, pick something and do it as worship unto the Lord. Dream big this year about working with God. Be hard in the name of Jesus and approach your craft as a daily opportunity to serve other people by living your life as a seed. And if you do this, evidently, according to Dr. Gary, people will be compelled by you. They will approach you and they will commend you for how you work. And you will have the opportunity to say, thanks, I do this as worship unto the Lord. You will have the opportunity to share the same gospel with words that you are already preaching with your actions. Actions that demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the one true God who makes people alive and who injects life into their everyday lives. Bonus, if you work that way, then God will bless your work and you'll probably prosper. And that's awesome. Give God praise. Clap your hands. Thank God for his word today.